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Bob's Blog: Sept 2009
Today's blog is all about helping the helpers; the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation relies to a great extent on fund raising, to continue its work with in the ex-Service community.The Beef Kitchen Ltd was set up to help the Foundation and its nominated clients; its role is to help the helpers. The Beef Kitchen supports the Foundation by assisting in various ways, one of which is providing employment training and employment to ex-Servicemen and women.
Pryor's Bank Café has helped raised the profile of the Foundation, and more importantly the highly valued work the Foundation undertakes on behalf of the public in assisting into a new life many hundreds of ex-Service personnel who are disabled and have come from a homeless background.
Building a sustainable model of training takes time and serious funding; the funding for the café came from experts who saw that the project met with the rules and ticked the boxes to be eligible for funding; the balance of the funding required came from former army officers who are now successful businessmen. The ongoing funding requirements required come from sales and further private funding from the board of Directors of the Beef Kitchen Ltd. That funding will continue until the café can stand alone and meet its own costs. It should also noted that none of the Directors are paid any sort of salary or expenses from the café project and that the many thousands of hours over the past three years have been given free of any costs whatsoever.
The desired outcome for the partners, supporters and directors of the Beef Kitchen Ltd is to see the café making a positive difference, improving the life skills and chances for those who for lots of reasons have lost the way.
That, dear reader is the true profit in the Pryor's Bank Café project; it works hand in hand with the ethos and motives of the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation.
Understanding the complexities and building a business that appeals to the general public is a task all on its own and for the past year we have tried to find a balance that provided the outcomes that all involved wanted. Managers have come and gone, the menus have changed, as have the opening and closing times.
We now feel we have found a balance that we can work from, to improve the performance of the café's objectives for all concerned. The present financial turmoil has not helped and there is no doubt people have cut back on expenditure, yet at the café sales figures have improved and the costs have come down.
There can be no doubt that starting a business in a near 20 year disused building in a park required a very carefully calculated financial and operational plan. It can be no surprise that for the greater part of our first trading year we did not cover all our costs nor did we expect to. However we have reversed that position and with expert and careful management our second year will see an expected and planed for outcome.
Good managers along with chefs are hard to find; we have been fortunate enough to find one man with both skills and the difference showed within the first couple of days of his taking over the Café project. Mike comes to us with bags of experience and a history of success; he has embraced the ethos of the project and supports the aim of helping the Foundation achieve its purpose and involvement in the Pryor's Bank Café project.
Above the norm café menus, exciting combination's of locally sourced organic and rare breed ingredients go into making lunch and all the services at the café a landmark establishment in Fulham and surrounding areas. In a time when we see F word and other TV chefs closing down their restaurants it is remarkable to see Pryor's Bank Café blooming, in a late summer. Long may it last!
None of the above was possible without the support of our project partners; The Royal British Legion, Communities & Local Government, The Poppy Factory and All Saints Fulham. By supporting the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation and them in turn supporting and helping their clients, we the board of Directors feel we have set upon the road a good vehicle to improve in all aspects the lives of those who work at the café and whom ever else the Foundation see fit to assist in improving their lot.
As mad as this may sound, bookings for Christmas have started so if you want to consider the café for your company or private party then please call Mike who will be happy to assist you.
Bob